Last week was a banner one for followers of the Windows Insider Program. Microsoft made an enormous “oops” by posting a direct download link to an internal tool for flipping quite a lot of the interior switches in Windows 11, a few of that are utilized in A/B testing. That made it potential for customers to manually allow options which are normally solely turned on at random to ensure that Microsoft to check the outcomes. Actually, utilizing the instrument could be very a lot a “don’t try this at home, kids!” state of affairs—it’s potential it’d brick your PC—however if you wish to stroll on the wild aspect, right here’s the way you do it.

First of all, it’s worthwhile to be running a Windows Insider build. This is a simple and pretty protected course of: Just click on the Start button on Windows 11, kind “Windows Insider,” and click on the outcome that claims “Windows Insider Program settings.” Click “Get started” and comply with the directions, selecting from the 4 channels in descending order of stability: Release Preview, Beta, Dev, and Canary. The Beta channel is beneficial for combine between entry to new options and system stability. You’ll have to obtain the up to date model via Windows Update, and probably reboot a few times.

Once all that’s completed and also you’re working on a Windows Insider construct, you’ll want the StagingTool.exe program. This is an executable made by Microsoft itself, so it’s legit…however the direct hyperlinks to it have been eliminated. They’re popping up everywhere in the internet and are straightforward to search out, however for varied causes I received’t hyperlink to it right here. Just train warning when downloading the file, and run it via a virus scanner for a bit of additional safety.

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Once you’ve received the StagingTool.exe file, you’ll have to flex your old-school command line expertise. Open up a Command Prompt or Windows Terminal occasion utilizing administrator privileges. Navigate to the folder holding the executable, then kind “StagingTool.exe /?” to see a listing of instructions.

Unfortunately, the instrument isn’t all that user-friendly—which is just to be anticipated from an inside Microsoft instrument that was by no means meant to be seen by the general public. Even the “/query” command will solely listing out the interior ID numbers of the options you may allow or disable, with no description of what they really do. As Bleeping Computer reports, you may try a few of the Windows consumer boards and Twitter communities to get a have a look at the juiciest options to make use of with the “/enable” command.

Again, please bear in mind that really utilizing this instrument, even accurately, might do some severe injury to your Windows construct and even your pc itself. An entire wipe of your system isn’t out of the query right here, although it’s most likely unlikely. To be protected, I’d advocate working Windows 11 either in a virtual machine or on a secondary laptop computer or desktop, the place you aren’t conserving singular copies of any vital recordsdata.